In the footsteps of Van Gogh

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Today I had my art history trip to Arles and St. Remy to see some motifs that Vincent Van Gogh painted when he was here, over a century ago. And believe it or not, there's still some stuff here that's basically unchanged. That's France for you.

We started out in the middle of nowhere, looking at a footbridge that wasn't the one the Van Gogh painted, because that one's gone, but it's the same type of bridge. That was pretty cool, but we had to sit in the grass with the mistral blowing around us, and I was frankly kinda cold.

Things were better when we got into Arles proper, and looked at the old road to Rome that is lined by all these Roman sarcophagi. This was a motif that Van Gogh and Gaugin did together, but they looked at completely differently. After this stop we couldn't find the bus again, so we had to walk into Arles, through the market to the old hospital where Van Gogh stayed after he cut off a piece of his ear. He did a painting of the garden in the courtyard of the Hotel de Dieu, so we stood in the exact place he did and looked out over the garden from the balcony. That was pretty cool, working out where he must have stood.

Our next stop we crowded onto a narrow sidewalk by a bridge and looked at a painting that showed the same stairs leading up to the bridge across the Rhone. But I couldn't figure out where the big, modern day tree was until I got closer to the painting. In the painting the tree is just a sapling! And it's still there. Pretty cool.

We had a break for lunch and I ate with Bridget, Amelia and Mollie at this café by the amphitheater. it was right next to the café I had eaten at the last time I was in Arles, almost two month previously. It was like coming full circle. We had a great meal and just basked in the Provencale sun. I guess I basked a bit too much, because I had a little sunburn afterwards.

We met back at the bus at 14h30 and headed out towards St. Remy, stopping at the Abbaye de Montmajor on our way. The asylum at St. Remy is just next to the old Roman ruins of Glanum, where I also was two months ago. So that was weird again. We cut across a field to get to the asylum and were happy to find that it was open to the public. It's a really pretty place- stone walls and flowers and ivy. If I go crazy, put me in here.

By the time we were done I felt somewhat Van Gogh-ed out, but whatever. It's not everyday you get to walk in the footsteps of a master.

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Photos

The tree has grown...
but it's the same place that Van Gogh was!